DCRDEX First Look - DecredDEX Fundamentals

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Opening DCRDEX

I’m using Decrediton with SPV mode disabled. It generally takes longer to complete the initial blockchain sync, but it does mean that I’m validating the Decred blockchain information myself without relying on a third-party service.

Once our wallet is open, head over to the DEX tab and click on the “launch DEX window” then enter your password. I’ll stop here for a second and say at this point I’ve already backed up both my Decrediton wallet seed and my DCRDEX seed. Failing to do this could lead to you loosing all of your funds if your computer crashes or other problematic situation. So please, if you haven’t backup this information do so now, before it’s too late.

Another thing to remember is all trades are completed on-chain, so your DEX window needs to remain open until your trade is fully settled. If the window does close, you won’t lose your money, but it does mean your trade could fail and the fund return process could be initiated.

The first thing I do at the beginning of a trading session is head over to the wallets tab and rescan my Bitcoin wallet. This is to make sure it’s in sync before I start trading. This is also a good indicator that everything is working correctly.

Getting your first DCR

The next thing to do is make sure you have enough coins in your trading wallets to cover fees and the trade. For Bitcoin, I like to keep this balance above 0.0008 BTC and for Decred I like to keep this balance above 0.1 DCR. For a BTC / DCR trade you will also need enough to cover 1 lot, which is currently 40 DCR, but this is likely to come down considerable over the coming months.

Obtaining your first DCR, to cover fees, can be quite problematic as not many exchange list Decred. For simplicity, I use Coinbase and Changelly, which allows me to conveniently convert BTC to DCR from my Coinbase wallet to my Decrediton DCRDEX wallet. Note, you will only ever need to do this once. Once you have enough funds for your on-chain fees, you can do everything else directly in DCRDEX. It’s also possible to populate your Bitcoin wallet with funds directly from Coinbase. If you are a Binance user, you can trade directly on their exchange from BTC to DCR. Subsequently, you can populate your Decrediton DCRDEX wallet directly from your Binance wallet and vice versa.

This may seem like a lot of effort, but being able to trade using a peer to peer decentralised exchange will lead to a lot more freedom and flexibility. Profits for an average user can also be considerable when compared to centralised exchanges and the losses faced in terms of slippage and fees.

DCRDEX Markets and tools

To send or receive money to your DCRDEX wallets, you first have to unlock the wallet. Clicking on the “Deposit” button will show your receive address and a button to copy it. This is a similar process for sending funds. For instance, DCRDEX can send Bitcoin directly to your Coinbase Bitcoin wallet.

On the right-hand side of each wallet, it shows the available pairs for that coin. This is also available if you click on the Markets tab at the top. DCRDEX currently has three markets, BTC DCR and LTC, but there are more on the way. Currently, the BTC / DCR market has the most liquidity, as it’s been running for almost two years at this point. The LTC markets are building up liquidity slowly, but this will gain traction once the Litecoin built-in wallet is available.

Next is the order history, which can be found under the profile image, top right. The order history shows, all of your trading activities and is a great reference for historic transactions. Although I have many trades listed, I’ve only completed three. If you click on the ‘executed’ filter, you can see this more clearly. I’ve experimented with limit selling and market selling to see how each functions. If you click on the file icon on the right, you get more detail about the trade. This helps me keep track of a trade in terms of whether it’s fully settled or not, see how successful a trade was or if I could have done better.

The bell icon will flash up with a message each time you conduct or complete an activity. Like completing a trade, transferring or receiving coins and error alerts.

The final icon on the top bar is the settings tab which gives you access to some basic settings including changing from dark mode to light mode; showing pop up notifications; display price data from exchanges, which show you how much your coins are currently worth; DEX server registration information; changing your app password; and finally, your application seed information to help you back up your DCRDEX information.